Don’t laugh at this #NewIndia ‘gau-vernment’

Cow vigilantes are back in the news. Three cattle traders were beaten up in Kalkaji, in South Delhi, not too far from the Prime Minister’s residence at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg. In the amazing #NewIndia, the question that seems to be moot to many is this – “were they actually transporting cows or buffalos?”

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke out against “gau rakshaks” last year, he was careful enough to sympathise with only Dalit victims of such violence. Atrocities on Muslims, as is the norm, did not quite catch his attention. At that time, it was also quite evident that Modi had the Uttar Pradesh state elections in mind. Well, now that the BJP has registered a resounding win in the state, all bets are off. Chief vigilante, Yogi Adityanath, who also happens to be the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh has started a reign of terror that seems to extend well into the National Capital Region, Delhi.

As Prime Minister, Modi may want to keep a handle on this kind of cow vigilantism in order to protect his ‘image’. But he cannot escape the responsibility of having laid down the template. Modi used the ‘cow protection’ dog whistle to great effect not just as when he was the Gujarat Chief Minister, but also relentlessly campaigned on the issue of “Pink Revolution”. His well-measured policy on Muslims – ignoring them after becoming Prime Minister (under the garb of ‘India first’, ‘sabkasaath,sabkavikaas’, etc) is just a follow-up act to demonising them when he was Chief Minister (for terrorism, population growth, etc). If Yogi Adityanath is now following in those footsteps, what can we expect from the Prime Minister?

When he spoke out last year, Modi also probably wanted to generate consensus on tricky reforms, such as the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Now that box too has been ticked with some creative Parliamentary manoeuvring. Modi can continue with his lofty talk about federalism, without worrying about the need to generate a consensus.

As a matter of fact, this has never been about the cow itself. All this cow-talk is merely a signalling device to the right-wing followers that the “other” can be harassed on any issue of their choosing. And the media has, well, been cowed into submission. So the vigilante criminals are now softly known as “gau rakshaks”, quite similar to the other set of criminals who are being mollycoddled as “anti-Romeo squads”. Fair game I suppose, in an age where an independent media is supposed to be one that is funded by fat cat industrialists who are part of the government and positions itself firmly against anti-establishment forces.

Sanjaya Baru recently used the term ‘Developmental Hindutva‘ with reference to Prime Minister Modi and his party, and probably had a balancing act in mind. The message was that the RSS and its affiliate groups (a mix of social, cultural, vigilante, etc) could continue on their merry-gau-round as long as a semblance of development is delivered to the people. The rest of the work would be done by Photoshop experts working in the BJP IT cell sweatshops. This is the BJP model. And the electorate will keep falling for it until they find an alternative.